However, a couple of warnings before you set off. First, the guidebook has been written by a copywriter who I suspect has spent too much time reclining in a garden chewing poppy seeds. It's my only explanation for phrases such as: "floating cushions sprouting from flowerbeds graft themselves onto the natural reflex to pass through this astonishing space as quickly as possible." We can't even blame the translator; the original Dutch is just as confusing.

Second, don't expect to come across innovative urban garden designs as displayed at events like the Chelsea Flower Show. Kortrijk's Secret Gardens aren't really gardens at all. I went looking for ideas for my own garden and came away without any inspiration at all.

The inspiration may be intended more for artists than gardeners. A prime example is "The Chaotic Maze" by the American Martha Schwartz, which lies within the Broel Museum garden. It's composed of about 40 giant flower boxes filled with a selection of yews, ornamental grasses and various shrubs. Apparently, the precise positioning of the flower boxes was decided through choreography. A dance performance was filmed, and the film is on permanent display in the museum.

Sorry Martha, the guidebook might call you the Andy Warhol of landscape architecture but watching a video choreographed for flower boxes is more pretension than we earthbound gardeners can handle.

Other creations fare much better. "A Wheat Field for the City" at the foot of the Buda Tower successfully brings agricultural crops into the city. The addition of cornflowers, poppies and scabious makes the small field even more attractive. I also loved the earthy, crunching sound made by walking on the path made of crushed red tiles. One of its designers is the aptly named Denis Dujardin, who was partly responsible for the highly acclaimed redesign of the Maria Hendrika park in Ostend.

I was also attracted by "Criss-Crossed" in the Houtmarkt, which has great potential as a relaxing place to sit and escape the crowds of shoppers. By mid-July its plants - climbing hops, convolvulus and morning glory - should have spread along a dense network of steel wires between two walls to form a roof of foliage and colourful blooms. It was designed by Berlin-based Atelier Le Balto.

On the other hand, "Stepping Stones" in the Overbekeplein by Jan Bleys' design agency Ars Horti didn't work for me. Judging from the bewildered stares of local shoppers, they too didn't get the point of what seem to be giant surfboards covered by artificial turf. Again, the guidebook didn't help. The grass mats, it claims, "give the area a greater sense of fragility".

But maybe that is one of the objectives of Secret Gardens: to ask ourselves "what actually is a garden?" A garden is much more than a lawn, flowerbed, pond with goldfish and some vegetables. It could be any green space, of any size, anywhere, used for a multitude of purposes.

One area in which Secret Gardens definitely succeeds is the use of vacant urban space. Many of the gardens are located in wasteland, derelict building sites or under-used public areas. Introducing any form of green life to these areas is certainly a step in the right direction.

www.secretgardens-kortrijk.be